Monday, November 13, 2006

Random Thoughts from the Weekend

1. On PTI this Friday Wilbon said that Northwestern would "shock the world" and beat OSU. Was he serious or was he joking? Honestly, I couldn't tell (which was probably on purpose).

2. Not surprisingly, Wilbon's 'prediction' didn't come true. That was a slaughter.

3. Northwestern's first turnover, the Laurinaitis caused fumble? There's no way that should've counted, the runner's knees were down.

4. I enjoyed how ABC/ESPN kept the Michigan-Indiana score in the corner for the OSU game. It was kinda eeiry how Michigan and Ohio State kept matching each other score for score (after they both stumbled a bit last week).

5. One of the local news stations reported that the 'powers that be' asked Ohio State and Michigan to move Saturday's game to prime time, but the coaches nixed the idea. Ohio State probably nixed the idea as well, I mean, I would imagine they like their campus in one piece.

7. Like I said for the 2002 game, there's gonna be a riot no matter what. The only question is if it's a happy riot or an angry riot. I'll be in Columbus for the festivities, but I'm not sure if I'll be near campus for the actual game (I prefer my car not on fire).

8. I'm not sure when I'll be making my trek down to Columbus. I might leave on Thursday night or early Friday morning. I'll leave no later than 2pm on Friday, so if you're in C-Bus, be prepared for my triumphant return.

9. Texas and Auburn ruined some of the BCS fun. I wanted a ton of 1-loss teams, but I wouldn't mind a ton of 2 loss teams either. The latter scenario could pave the way for the OSU-Michigan rematch. I either want that OSU rematch or I want the most screwed up scenario possible. A one loss Florida, Michigan and USC/ND would be ideal (a 1-loss Texas would've been sweet too). I'm sick of this 'the whole season is a playoff' bullshit. If your one loss is early you're okay, if your is late, you're screwed. Playoff please.

10. As for the Heisman race, if Smith leads the Buckeyes to victory on Saturday, he's got it about wrapped up. If he has a huge game, it's in the bag. If he loses, it's a toss up between Smith and Brady Quinn.

11. You have no idea how much I enjoyed West Virginia and Louisville's losses. I can't wait for West Virginia to smoke Rutgers and end that discussion as well.

16. The Browns secondary stepped it up versus Atlanta. Both Sean Jones and Brodney Pool did really well and even much maligned Ralph Brown made a few plays. With Jones and Pool, the Browns should be set at safety for awhile.

17. I heard on the radio that the Browns scored something like 20 points total in the first half of their first 5 games this season (the Carthon games). Since Carthon 'resigned' they've scored 32 in 3 games. Suck it, Roger Brown, Davidson can make Frye the superstar we all know he can be!!!!!!!!!!!!

18. The offense actually looked like an offense yesterday. Predictably, they slowed up in the second half, going a bit conservative. But the line wasn't completely awful (just kinda) and the Browns had something that looked like a running game. Though, as I've stated before, I'm not a huge fan of Droughns, and the running back position would be the only offensive skill position I would actively look to change in the offseason.

20. I agree with everything Terry Pluto says about the Cavs here. And I'm sure he'll get some angry emails for having the gall to defend Z in public. Doesn't he know Z is slow? Slow I tell you!

21. Bud Shaw wants to remind you that NBA players say stupid things. So does Bud Shaw. (Honestly, what's the point of that column? This just in, some NBA players are assholes! I just want to know why, when Stephen Jackson does something dumb, the NBA has a problem. But when Chris Henry does something stupid all it means is that Chris Henry has a problem. Why the hate Bud Shaw? Why?)

23. There's a petition floating around the internets to bring back Michael Reghi (in case you're wondering, I did not sign it). As you may know, I was never a huge Reghi fan (I liked him well enough, but I didn't think he was amazing or anything), but Fred McLeod's homerism irks me to know end. In a perfect world, I would turn on Joe Tait and turn the volume on the TV off, but we have satellite in my house and the delay is messed up (I know, I know, woe is me). My dad and I are trying to find some way to fix this scenario. No one holds a candle to Tait.

24. I don't have any new music recommendations this week, whenever I was in the car this I had talk radio on (did you hear there was an election this past week?) So instead of something new, I'm gonna let you know about one of my favorite bands of all time, Dispatch. When you ask someone if they've heard of Dispatch, you're receive one of two responses. Either they'll have no clue what or who Dispatch is or they'll like at you like you're some asshole who just asked them if they've ever heard of the Beatles. There's no in between; either they don't know them or they're appalled that you would even ask. The best starting point for Dispatch is the album Bang Bang, I've never met a soul that didn't think this album was at least 'okay'. Unfortunately, Dispatch broke up a few years ago (they had a giant farewell concert in Boston, which I was lucky enough to attend) but fortunately you can stream all of their albums at their official website. Check 'em out (at the very least listen to the acoustic gem 'The General' off of Bang Bang.

30. I like the Josh Barfield trade, Let's Go Tribe has a good breakdown. This fills a need without the Indians committing any more funds. Which is all well and good. But this offseason's perceived success will hinge on what the Tribe does with the bullpen. If they go dumpster diving for bullpen arms yet again, they may have a riot on their hands.

3 comments:

Isn't Wilbon a Northwestern grad and pretty much a foaming-rabid fan of all things Chicago?

Unfortunately, we'd better get used to this. Nobody in the Chicago/New York/L.A. national media wants to see an Ohio team win anything. That's boring to them.

Expect your east coast types to jump on the Rutgers bandwagon, while your west coasters saddle up USC and ride them.

Any way you slice it, Ohio State is going to be portrayed as Darth Vader and whomever they are playing is going to be a team full of Rudys that are playing for truth, justice and the American way.

I know, Yankee fans have to endure the same thing. But let's face it, they have twice as many apologists (Buster Olney) as critics in the national media. Ohio has a bunch of critics and no national media voice to counteract them.

This doesnt pertain to anything in your blog in particular, but I want to share an email I wrote to Kmassey who creats the Massey part of the BCS formula. Here goes...

So about those rankings....basically you are saying that on a neutral field ND, Rutgers, Florida, USC, and Michigan would beat Ohio State. I will give you credit for 2 of those: Michigan and USC. The other 3, please. ND put up NO contest against Michigan AT HOME. I just want to thank you for contributing to a radically flawed system that hinders the great sport that college football truly is. I would also like to say that it is comforting to know that a formula can determine how truly strong a team is rather than what happens on the field. After all, your formula shows that it would be ridiculous for an absolute powerhouse like USC, which according to your rankings is "stronger" than Florida, ND, and Ohio State, to lose to a 6-4 Oregon State team that got smoked by California who got crushed by Tenn and lost to UNRANKED Arizona. Oh, wait a minute..........

PS: I am a graduate of Ohio State with a degree in economics so I have quite a strong math background. Not nearly as good as yours, but accomplished nonetheless. The game is played on the field, not on a chalkboard or in a computer. Do us all a favor and have yourself and your math cronies revoke their computations from the BCS. Mathematics has absolutely no business being involved with college football. Ever notice how the computer rankings are quite different from the coaches and the AP poll especially at the end of the season? I wonder why that is. Maybe it makes TOO much sense that people actually involved with the game of football understand it and can qualify how good a team is. Don't you find it comical that you mention the following on your website:"Furthermore, computer ratings are ignorant of many important factors such as injury, weather, motivation, and other intangibles. With this in mind, it is not wise to hold unrealistic expectations of the predictions."

and

"Every feature of my system is based on sound statistical assumptions regarding the nature of sports and games. There are rarely any skewed or highly abnormal results, and the Massey Ratings are highly correlated with the consensus."

Nice. Try explaining both of these to Texas and #1 to USC and Cal. Also, you mention that you are honored by the BCS for using your rankings. How is tainting a great sport honorable? How about you DO something honorable and use your math skills to teach kids in the classroom how to apply that math to something that it SHOULD be used for like sales forecasting, modeling US trends in unemployment in urban areas, or analyzing domestic metal import/export correlations to the Shanghai and London Metals exchanges.